Niagara Falls with Devaz

Birkarnelzelzit Thiyam *

"Bro, are you awake," Devaz from Sekmai shook me up. He lives in an amazing heart call Scarborough or to make it sound international, somewhere in Toronto.

My eye-lids were even struggling to open, for I live in Ottawa – lonely and avoided, I am not used to such physical shaking morning alarms. Through the unwilling lids, I saw him yelling.

"Did I get laid?" that thought disturbed me, then consciousness hugged me, "I just crashed in my friend's apartment, nothing more."

"What's up?" I broke the episodes in my head and kept up my normalcy.

"Let's go to Niagara, go get ready bro," he said in the same pace with "let's go to pan dukan."

"Bro, really? It's 153 km, sure you wanna go?"

Well! I didn't make more negative moves before he shuts off the plan. Harjod, another fun lover from Punjab who is on the hunt for a Korean girl was the third person in the team.

An hour and half journey squeezed into few minutes for me and Devaz were lost in hit Manipuri songs.

The cloudy morning wasn't really appreciating our journey; the winds were not in the favour of the expected highway car speeds.

Fast-forward, we reached the very Niagara Falls. It wasn't my first time but second was not less from the first; kept increasing her beauty.

While Harjod and Devaz were busy taking pictures, something housed me in – I have always wanted to take picture with the Manipur flag in Niagara Falls. Saying so, I brought one in my bag. The beauty caught all the sights.

Let me break it, I was waiting for anyone to ask about the flag, nobody came but if did, I would have said, "I am from Manipur, near India." Not to sound anti national but, I am a little done with "Bhaktis."

I won't be describing how Niagara fall is and all those, this is a digital world and people have seen all the visuals. But something you won't just catch from Youtube is the environment.

The sense of belongingness and responsibility that you will see in person from the locals and the tourist there is touching.

Then something popped in, "is loktak that less in attraction comparing to Niagara Falls?"

I personally think, it is not mother's potential gift that's becoming a hindrance in attracting tourist but the environment and the attitudes around the gift.

Won't take you on a roller coaster writes to please you with my writings but yes, got a chance then Niagara Falls is something you should never take off from your bucket list.

We didn't take much of a time, for the great Niagara Falls-view Casino calls.

The addiction you get in casino is just, let me stop here. I mean, that's bad, don't get me wrong – but yes, it's beautiful at times.

When I was in grade 4, I saw Niagara Falls for the first in my book. I wished I could go someday. It's not an achievement but something I felt happy about.

It's beautiful to go to dream places, if you have a map with u, roll it and point a place, mark down that you will be there in 5 years.

Work hard, play hard and reach your dreams.